A funny thing happened on the way to 2010. Even though the NCAA still counts non-FBS games every year for
bowl-eligibility purposes and the number of team-pairs that play is the same as 2008, the FBS games
graph "tightened up" considerably. There are still four teams that play two games against
non-FBS teams: Syracuse, Virginia, Ball State and Arizona State) but there were seven last year, and
38 teams play no non-FBS teams.

Syracuse can be forgiven - nonconference scheduling is more difficult for Big East teams than anyone else. Virginia's FCS opponents are in-state teams
with traditional matchups in multiple sports, so the Cavaliers get a bit of a pass, too. Ball State's situation
(not all of these results are by choice) is regrettable - there's not enough diversity in MAC vs non-MAC
interconference matchups to give up two opportunities to address that.

But Arizona State only has three non-conference slots to fill. To use even one of them to play a non-FBS team
is a misdemeanor, and to use two ought to be a felony.

Last year only 24 of 120 teams were connected by no worse than an opponents' opponent relationship, this
year there are 50. (See FBS Schedule Connectivity - 2010 for the list
of teams ordered by how much their schedule contributes to that of the field.)

Although 2010's schedule is an improvement by this measure, there's still a long way to go. With over six
times as many team-pairs the measures for the 2010 D1 Baseball season were:

CI

APL

#O

#OO

N3

N4

2.34

#Pairs:

3352

23295

18325

178

59.02

%Pairs:

7.42

51.59

40.59

0.39

"Us" vs "Them"

Fans of teams in non-BCS AQ conferences' data points for "we'd have a better record if we got to play
those AQ teams at home" arguments include 31 games (plus eight "neutral site" matchups) this year that may or may not make that case:

2-Sep

Southern California

at

Hawaii

2-Sep

Minnesota

at

Middle Tenn St

2-Sep

Pittsburgh

at

Utah

3-Sep

Arizona

at

Toledo

4-Sep

Syracuse

at

Akron

4-Sep

Washington

at

BYU

4-Sep

Cincinnati

at

Fresno St

4-Sep

Texas

at

Rice

4-Sep

Wisconsin

at

UNLV

10-Sep

West Virginia

at

Marshall

11-Sep

North Carolina St

at

UCF

11-Sep

Rutgers

at

Florida Intl

11-Sep

Texas Tech

at

New Mexico

11-Sep

Mississippi

at

Tulane

17-Sep

California

at

Nevada

17-Sep

Kansas

at

Southern Miss

18-Sep

Northwestern

at

Rice

18-Sep

Washington St

at

SMU

18-Sep

Baylor

at

TCU

18-Sep

Connecticut

at

Temple

18-Sep

Indiana

at

Western Kentucky

25-Sep

Oregon St

at

Boise St

25-Sep

Baylor

at

Rice

2-Oct

Louisville

at

Arkansas St

8-Oct

Oklahoma St

at

UL Lafayette

9-Oct

Mississippi St

at

Houston

16-Oct

North Carolina St

at

East Carolina

30-Oct

Duke

at

Navy

6-Nov

Tennessee

at

Memphis

27-Nov

Kansas St

at

North Texas

3-Dec

Illinois

at

Fresno St

Overall there are 117 games scheduled between teams from AQ conferences and
the rest of FBS.

ACC

BigE

B10

B12

ND

P10

SEC

vAQ

CUSA

Ind

MAC

MW

SBC

WAC

v¬AQ

FCS

ACC

∗

6

1

2

1

2

7

19

4

4

3

1

3

1

16

13

BigE

6

∗

1

1

1

2

4

15

3

1

4

2

5

1

16

9

B10

1

1

∗

2

3

3

2

12

2

0

13

1

4

2

22

10

B12

2

1

2

∗

0

5

2

12

7

0

3

7

6

5

28

8

ND

1

1

3

0

∗

2

0

7

1

2

1

1

0

0

5

0

P10

2

2

3

5

2

∗

1

15

2

0

1

3

0

3

9

7

SEC

7

4

2

2

0

1

∗

16

8

0

3

0

8

2

21

10

CUSA

4

3

2

7

1

2

8

27

∗

3

4

2

4

2

15

6

Ind

4

1

0

0

2

0

0

7

3

∗

4

2

2

2

13

2

MAC

3

4

13

3

1

1

3

28

4

4

∗

2

2

2

14

10

MW

1

2

1

7

1

3

0

15

2

2

2

∗

0

12

18

4

SBC

3

5

4

6

0

0

8

26

4

2

2

0

∗

0

8

2

WAC

1

1

2

5

0

3

2

14

2

2

2

12

0

∗

18

8

Once again: the ACC leads in number of games vs FCS teams and leads the AQ conferences
in non-conference games vs teams from other AQ conferences; also the most games between teams
from the same two conferences are the Big Ten vs MAC (I know there are good reasons, but guys this
is getting pretty boring.)

You'll notice that the SEC only has 47 non-conference games in the matrix. There are two teams that
are "unclassified" as they begin new programs that aren't far enough along for even "transitional" status.
One of them will play Alabama on November 20th. Yes, that Alabama. The defending
FBS Champions will play a game against Georgia State, who's not even NAIA. I think it won't even count
against the limits on practice time.